Small property management company in Munich and Wolfratshausen with a focus on rental management
Conny Lidl has been working in his property management company in Munich for 31 years. During this time, a lot has often fallen through the cracks. "I was always running at full throttle and chasing work," says the 54-year-old. Although he enjoyed his work, he thought about hiring a managing director or selling the company. But things turned out differently: Lidl instead restructured its property management and made it more efficient - with the help of Impower.
1100 units are still managed by Lidl and its four employees; last year, the company sold almost all of its condominium complexes. "As a pure property management company, we only want to look after rental properties," says Lidl. "This saves us a lot of work and effort because we only have one owner and therefore only one contact person per property. Owners' meetings are also no longer necessary." His portfolio includes houses with ten units as well as properties with 120 apartments.
Following the restructuring, there are also fewer employees working in property management because there is simply less work to do. In fact, on this Tuesday morning he is only in the office, a former tinsmith's workshop in Munich city center, with two colleagues. The rooms next door serve as studios where artists exhibit their work. There is no hustle and bustle here, just the occasional ringing of the property manager's phone. The fact that there are so few staff here is also down to Impower, says Lidl. " With another accounting system, I wouldn't be able to manage this with so few employees."
Accounting with Impower's ERP system takes only a fraction of the time it took with the old system, he says. "Ongoing account management is perfectly automated. Analogue incoming mail, such as paper invoices, is digitized at the touch of a button using the Impower scanner. Invoice entry, sales posting and payment, it couldn't be more effective."
With another accounting system, I wouldn't be able to manage this with so few employees.
According to Lidl, new employees only have to be trained briefly with Impower ; years of training as in the past are now a thing of the past. The employees can now do their work in peace and no longer have to work overtime. "We're no longer running behind, we're running ahead." And if the working environment is as "modern" as at Impower, he says, then it is also easier to find new employees. A big advantage in such a dusty industry as property management.
Lidl has moved both offices in recent months; the second is located in Wolfratshausen, in the south of Munich. The payment program was also changed as part of the restructuring. "We are now completely cloud-based," says the property manager. "When I started in property management, we had booking lists and typewriters in the office," Lidl recalls.
With Impower, new employees only have to be trained for a short time; years of training as in the past are now a thing of the past.
Now his employees and he can work from anywhere, completely independently of the office. Impower no longer needs servers or paper folders. "Migrating the data to Impower was really easy. How well it works depends on the software and the structure of the database, of course. With Impower it was no problem." It took two days to transfer the data.
All you need to work now is a laptop and an internet connection. "That's a huge advantage and offers even more flexibility and freedom for my colleagues and me." Impower, says Lidl, has brought a breath of fresh air to property management.
A breath of fresh air is something the property manager can now enjoy much more often. The mountain sports enthusiast has a house in the picturesque Karwendel mountains in the Alps. It's a wonderful place to go mountain biking or skiing. "The house used to be more of a weekend thing. But it's increasingly becoming the center of life." Relaxed property management with a view of the mountains - no problem with Impower.
